That was at least a couple years ago. It probably took me another year to sew a dress out of the pattern, and when I did it was because I had found a jersey sheet at Goodwill that I could use without risking any good fabric.

Well, the dress turned out really nicely. So nicely, in fact, that I wear that Goodwill sheet Gap dress a lot. It's pretty short and I never hemmed it, so I don't wear it in public...much. But when it's hot, it's awfully nice to wear that lightweight little number.

Now, I have been meaning to make another for some time. But lots of other things got in the way or took precedence. Then inspiration hit. I was at Joann's getting something for one of the projects I was working on recently...I can't remember what exactly...when I thought: "why not check out the bargain bin again?" 

And I found a jewel...a lovely cotton interlock with Marvel superheroes on it...for $3 a yard. C'mon. I could not pass it up.

It didn't take me long to make it up. It's ridiculously easy to put this dress together—except for the f-ing bands. OMG I took out the neckline band twice before I got it where I wanted it. I first sewed it in wrong. Okay, I had only basted that in but still. I rebasted and used my coverstitch. It was infuriatingly bad. Uneven, all over the place, hideous. I came upstairs cursing how much I hated that Janome Coverstitch 900, how I would never use it again, and bemoaning the fact that I chose it over a Babylock (because it was so much less expensive although it was still not cheap). I even started to hunt around for a Babylock Euphoria. 

I cooled off, went back to the sewing room, and I ripped the neckline out, not fun, and rebasted and then used a twin needle. That worked beautifully.

I had already done the armbands 0n the coverstitch. They were okay, not great, but not noticeable enough for me to rip them out and do them over.  

I added about 4 inches to the pattern that I made and used for the Goodwill version, but I ended up cutting off 2 inches before hemming. Isn't it cute?

Closeup of the neckline and fabric design:

Soon after I was back at Joann's getting buttons for the blue linen Harvey when I thought..."what if there is another awesome bargain in that bin?" And do you know what? There was: a similar Marvel-themed interlock, also for $3 a yard. I made up another Gap-copy dress as soon as I had washed the fabric.

This time I went straight to the twin-needle technique but I started with the hem, thank goodness. Because it looked like crap. I tried many settings on my machine and it just would not stop tunneling.

Frustrated, I went back to the coverstitch and tested some stitches on the new fabric. Still terrible. Then, fortunately, it dawned on me that I might not have the settings in the best place. Maybe I could do some research.

I first went to YouTube and found a very helpful and basic tutorial about my machine on the Last Stitch channel. She noted the importance of the differential feed setting. So next I checked in the manual. OMG. Somehow all my settings were in all sorts of strange places. I returned all the tensions, the stitch lengths, and the stitch widths back to recommended settings and played with the differential feed a little and found a setting that created a beautiful hem. 

Finally, I basted the arm and neckbands on and coverstitched those. The neckline. Arrrgh! I decided to baste it down on the front and follow the basting on the coverstitch. It turned out much better than when my settings were all awry, but still, the stitch placement was not perfect, and wouldn't you know, the worst spot was on the front. There is a little lip the floats a little bit above the main fabric and irritates me (my sensibilities, not my skin). Still, in the end, I said "fuck it. It's good enough." Now if I can only lose 20 pounds, it might be downright adorable.

Closeup of the neckline and fabric design:

I'm starting to feel the heat. When I was younger, it couldn't get hot or humid enough for me. But now, when it's around 90, I am uncomfortable. I am playing in a summer orchestra, and we rehearse in an unconditioned church, so I wanted to find something breathable to wear.

I have my white linen Harvey that I had made a couple years ago for the beach at Hilton Head. I wore it to rehearsal, but because it's fairly see-through, I wore it with some yoga pants. My top half felt great, but my bottom half was pretty sweaty.

It then occurred to me that I had plenty of a heavier-weight linen that I'd used to make a sheath dress (which turned out to be too big at the shoulders and hideous because of that). ​

Ooooh, that is actually too flattering a picture. This one is more accurate:

The blue linen is heavier than the white linen. It still feels breathable, but I am looking forward to test driving it in the hot church to see if it's comfortable.

Something else I've wanted to sew for a LONG time is a wrap dress. I have had two patterns in my stash for probably a decade. I got the Style Arc Kate dress pattern first. I made a couple other dresses from a Style Arc pattern (here and, just so hideous: here) and decided the company's pattern model was very different from my body--theirs is long and lean and I'm curvy and short-waisted. Still, I have taken this pattern out a couple times over the years to reflect and consider making it. The last time I looked at it I had to laugh. I bought a size 8--and with Style Arc they only give you one size--and really doubted I could have fit into that. Somewhere along the line I bought the Vogue pattern. The envelope drawings didn't fill me with confidence that Vogue's pattern model would be any closer to me but I guess I figured the pattern came with lots of sizes and that might help. Having had so many fitting issues, I never got time or nerve to cut these out. Plus, that cleavage on the Vogue pattern drawing scared me. I don't like a neckline that's too low and that seems one of the big pitfalls with the wrap design.

Then came Cashmerette. I trusted that the company could draft for curves and their patterns always come with different cup sizes. But at the time, they didn't carry my size. I still ordered a print pattern when I got some fitting advice from a representative at the company. She told me to do an SBA, which is so funny since almost every top I make needs an FBA. 

At some point, I came across another wrap pattern -- the Ellie Mac tres belle wrap -- and even considered getting it. There are plenty of other wrap patterns out there. But I thought, no, sew up one of the three you already own.

I never got the time to sew the Appleton print pattern up before the company came out with 0-12 sizing. Also, they have a great sizing tool on their site where you can enter your measurements and it tells you what size to cut and sew. I got the PDF which was nice in that I could display and print only the sizes/lines I needed, and it smoothed between the sizes (in effect) so I didn't need to draw in the grading.

Sizing notes. When I first used the sizing tool, I don't know what I weighed but I was told to use a G/H cup and a size 4 grading to an 8 (I think). When I used the tool just now, I was told to use an E/F cup and grade from a 4 to an 8 using my current measurements [b 36, w 29, h 40.5, cup D]. I plugged in my measurements at my ideal weight [b 34, w 27, h 39, cup D; my high bust is always 32] and was instructed to use a C/D cup and grade from a 2 at the bust to a 4 at the waist to an 8 at the hips. (Size 2? Not a chance. The 4 fits well, but the sleeves are right on the verge of being too small). I don't get where the G/H cup size came in. Was I even fatter? Who knows. Memo to self: take better notes in real time. (The fitting advice I got for the larger-sizing pattern said the E/F cup was right. Maybe I should do that next time...but it will be the real fabric...and what if it's too small? Always tricky.)

Now that I am retired I have some time. So I decided to sew a mockup using some silk jersey I have had in my stash. I know. Silk jersey for a mockup. Sinfully wasteful. But the pattern on the fabric is weird. And frankly, silk jersey has not been my friend. It is absolutely lovely to sew with, and it feels like a cloud when it's on, but I don't like how it hugs and accentuates all my cellulitic bumps. Perhaps twiggy or buff bodies look great in silk jersey, but not me. So I made it and it fits me pretty well. The band was too long as drafted--it basically was the same length as the dress edge it was being sewed to, which would have let the neckline droop. So I sliced off two inches before sewing it on permanently. I think it could have been an additional 2 inches shorter to tighten up the opening.

So as I was cutting out the fabric, my husband said he thought it was beautiful. So in case it might turn out to be wearable, I lined the front and back pieces with some swimsuit lining I had in my stash. I liked it better for this silk jersey than the knit lining I used on my purple holy grail dress. It matched the weave of the silk a little better. I like how that decision turned out. It came together well and the drape looks good on the final dress. It did give me a little protection from the cellulite-broadcasting power of the silk jersey, as intended. 

The sleeves were too short for me. I'm sure the dress would look a little better overall with the true cap, but I just need more coverage. So I put a 2"-inch band on. 

I probably hemmed it too short. It seems too short for this dress pattern; the proportions might look better if the bit below the waist were longer, as in the picture of the model at the top of this post. Maybe it's hard to tell with these pictures but you can see how the bottom half is shorter than in the Cashmerette model.

I'm still a little timid about wearing it into public for fear it's a ghastly pattern. You can't always trust the husband in these cases. I'll run it past my sisters. 

UPDATE: I ran it past my daughter and she said no. Well, she commented on the cling power of the fabric, very diplomatically, as is her way. I am done with silk jersey, people. I hope some lucky person at Goodwill takes a shine to it because that's where it went.

Next, I will try to make another velvet Christmas dress. This time, I will use green stretch velvet (already ordered, from Cali Fabrics), and this pattern. I got the idea to sew a velvet Appleton when I saw the one Sew Sarah Smith did (and in fact, that was what motivated me in the end to purchase the first, print, Appleton pattern I bought.). Subsequently I have come across others: Sew Fearless and Bimble and Pimble.

I ordered this on my phone. It's "hunter green." God, I hope it's not hideous. Maybe I should have tried red again.

Update: Cali did not have the green, so I said okay send me the red. It's still folded in my stash.

This dress has been in the works for years, literally, where "literally" means what it's supposed to. I made a mockup in denim that was about the sixth in a long line of mockups, where the previous mockups were in muslin. I tweaked and tweaked the fit. The denim fit me pretty darn well. 

​I decided to make it up in a purple ponte I had in my stash. It's got a little bit of sparkly bits in it, which is not something I usually go for, but I bought it online and didn't see the sparkles until I opened the package. The color is very nice. The fabric is weighty and it might be that or it might simply be the fact that it is a knit while all the mockups were wovens, but this dress doesn't fit me as well as I would like. The waist seems a bit low. I feel the neckline is too low. I should like more coverage. It is very comfortable and I think the color looks good on me. I wore it while competing in a Toastmasters speech contest today and I felt pretty good in it.

I never wear this damn dress and it makes me so angry. Several times I've been charmed by the idea of wearing it...I still love the fabric—the design, the feel of it—and the style still seems like it should work for me. But I put it on and am disgusted. The voluminous back infuriates me and I have just discovered something else about the cut of the dress that put the nail in the coffin for me and motivated this update so I know better from now on. The neckline is too high. It chokes. I just made a Jalie raglan top and I like it...except for the neckline, which is pretty much the same as this dress and like many a round neck T-shirt. I unpicked the neckband and scooped out the neckline, matching a raglan sweatshirt I love but don't wear much because of the color. Once I put on the new neckband, I am looking forward to seeing if the changed neckline makes the top fun to wear.

Anywho...never again will I make this neckline. 

Ya know...it's a lot of work to put into something that doesn't turn out as nicely as one would wish. I have a few shirtdress patterns in my stash--none of which I have made before. I was in stash-busting mode and wanted to use up a black and white flower lawn I'd been saving for the purpose...for a while. This pattern comes with different cup sizes, so I chose it. I wear a D but chose the C cup remembering my Wild Ginger fiasco. I followed all the other sizing guidelines on the envelope, figuring if they took the time to make different sized cups, they were going to make a pattern that fit the stated measurements. Nope. What are these people thinking? Who likes massive amounts of ease? I made a number of adjustments to this dress, unfortunately after I cut it out. So the pleats at the back have been pulled forward because had to take a couple inches off the side from the waist on down. I had to raise the waist band...a couple times, not believing the first time that I would need to take out be so much as it turned out I had to. I had to remove at least 2 inches out of the center back because it was absurdly voluminous; there is still too much fabric there, but it's better. Since the yoke was cut and sewn and the waist band was already cut and I didn't want a seam there, I took a large dart out under the yoke and tapered to the waist band. I never intended to sew the collar because my husband says he doesn't like them. I figured I'd try this once and see if I liked it. I do. I bound the edge with a bias strip I cut from the same fabric. This is a lightweight lawn and is super comfortable. It was easy to sew with (and seam rip!), but the cut edges threatened to fray right away so as soon as I could I serged the seam edges.

Looking at the pictures, I think the back waistband is still too low. Next time...

I thought this would be my Holy Grail dress. I've been tweaking the fit for....years. Lately, it's been hanging in my sewing room because it didn't fit anymore! I've lost weight again, and now it fits, so I thought I'd document the mockup before I take it apart to use it to alter the paper pattern and then make a real dress. I can see from the pictures that I don't like the cap sleeves; thank goodness. (Maybe the darts I pinned out of the neckline are too big?)  I thought in the mirror they looked so good that longer sleeves wouldn't work. But I like longer sleeves. So the real version will have them. 

Update: I made it up in a knit. 

I've made this pattern a few times before in a knit. I wear most of those dress all the time because they look okay and they are super comfortable. But in looking at the pics, I've always suspected I made a size too large at the top. Here's one I made in a knit a while back:

I made the pattern again in a woven, and I am now convinced it's a size too large for me at the top.

I wanted to make a simple sheath for a trip to Hilton Head in some linen I had in my stash. I had bought it to make a beach coverup for the previous year's trip to Hilton Head, but I thought it was too heavy and changed to a lighter-weight white linen. I also  thought I hated the color of the blue, and I called the fabric "linen fit for a tablecloth." But I pulled it out before this trip and I realized the color is actually super nice. I realized it could be neat if you make the right thing with it. So I decided to try it with McCall's 6355 since I had made a lot of alterations to that pattern for myself and I had an--as it turns out--incorrect notion that it fit me. Sigh.

When I first basted this linen version together, I needed a little more room at the hips, so I removed the side seams and resewed. Then the darts, which I remembered lowering for the knit versions, look too low now. I pulled the shoulders up and it seemed to make everything look better. So I cut off an inch of the top shoulder seam. A nice side benefit was that the sleeve fit perfectly in the armseye, no ease to fiddle with. I put an invisible zipper in the center back (the pattern calls for an optional side-seam zipper, but I didn't feel qualified to pull that off). 

So I like this okay--it's a very comfortable and breathable fabric and I like the color and the matching of the sheath idea to the linen. HOWEVER, I am not sure if I sewed the sleeves in the wrong sides (and thus backwards) or if that inch I took out of the shoulders screwed up the fit of the dress on my torso. Maybe it's the sizing. The neckline is waaaay too large and my brassiere straps are usually visible. Oh well. Onward.

I have been eyeing the Wild Ginger Pattern Master program for years.

The idea of it! Put your measurements in, and it will draw up patterns that fit you perfectly. Choose from a veritable host of designs--including historical styles! Mix and match design elements. Create your own details and adjustments.

The price was never out of reach, but the uncertainty surrounding the program's true ease of use and quality of output made the investment unjustifiable. 

Recently, I have been at such a point of frustration and disappointment with my sewing. Most knit garments turn out fine, but I was not happy with my fit skills when it came to wovens. I had tried and tried to learn to fit things, but I was never content with the outcome. I have to work in fits and starts because of work and family and other demands on my time. Maybe I never gave enough focused attention to learning the skill of fitting or maybe I never gave enough time to any one method. 

I have looked at

• Joy Mahon's method on Craftsy and in her book. It makes intellectual sense, but I never really understood how to go from taking my measurements to adjusting the patterns.
• Pati Palmer and Marla Alto's Fit for Real People. I've spent the most time with this method and I just find it tedious.
• Nancy Zieman's pivot and slide method (Fitting Finesse). I have read this book but never tried the method. This is the one I think I will return to next.  
• Drafting slopers from my measurements. I did this in a class with local sewing teacher Karen Day, who is awesome. The slopers fit well [update: used to!]...but I am not sure what to do with them! How do I use them to make the mountain of commercial patterns I own fit me? How do I turn the slopers into actual garments?

About the Pattern Master program I was most held back by concern that it would not really work in practice. One piece of counter evidence I would return to in my mind when reconsidering the purchase is that about 1o or 15 years ago I had found a company online offering a similar service. You entered your measurements, picked a pattern, and it drafted the pattern. The dress I made fit well, though some elements were the sort to hide fit flaws (a gathered neckline, for example). I haven't seen a trace of that company anywhere recently.

Well about a month and a half ago, I gave in and bought the program. I bought both the program for wovens and the program for knits. They were on sale and buying both was the same as the one when not on sale.

Thus began my Wild Ginger Wild Goose Chase.

As soon as I downloaded the program, I hastily measured myself and typed the results in. I wasn't careful. The resulting fit garment did not fit. My bad. I sent in the photos and the measurements and a reply came back lighting fast. This during the COVID-19 lockdown. I was impressed. A couple tweaks were recommended. 

I adjusted the pattern as instructed but the results were still bad.

All this time I had been selecting from the basic settings a D cup. That's my bra size. But the excess in the bust on these mockups was just not going away, even with reducing bust ease in the default settings. So I made a new mockup with a C cup and remeasured myself so very carefully and made another mockup. This was better but still not great. I sent it in and was told to add two more front darts.

Well, I am done. For a long while at any rate. W.T.F.?

Scanning blogs, I came across Sew Sarah Smith's post of her beautiful Appleton dress in green stretch velvet, which she made for Christmas. A velvet Christmas dress sounded like such a lovely idea, I promptly headed to Cali Fabrics and bought some red stretch velvet.

I didn't have the Appleton, but I had 2 wrap dress in my pattern stash, Vogue 8379 and Style Arc Kate, plus a mock wrap, New Look 6301, all of which I haven't tried yet (I also have a couple Style Arc Slip on Suzies, but I have made 2 of them and I hate them...maybe the wrong fabric). I kept looking each of these over and fretting about not knowing what pattern adjustments I'd have to make and finally I said to hell with it, I'll just make another dress out of Jalie 3352. Actually, it was at my husband's insistence; he said "you look great in that dress" (although I don't agree).

Oh, and I ran to Joann's for that trim to dress the dress up a bit. Ooh, this does not look good. Terrible pooling at the back, etc., etc. Maybe a different pattern...maybe lose 20 pounds, maybe I should not wear stretch velvet? Just saw another beautiful Appleton in blue stretch velvet at Sew Fearless. A wrap is way more suited to this fabric than a dolman-sleeve A-line dress!!! I bought an Appleton after emailing Cashmerette and asking if I could adjust so it would be a wee bit smaller. I got a nice response with specific suggestions and I'm looking forward to trying it.

UPDATE: I cut it down to a top. Good for Xmas and more comfortable to be in a shirt and pants. Still...not very flattering is it? Not sure it's worth trying this velveteen fabric again, even for a wrap dress...Jeez...I really don't like how this fits.

More progress getting through my existing patterns, although the fabric was a failing of willpower. I should not look at ads. I should unsubscribe from all lists. I tell myself it is a stressbusting amusement to scroll through online fabric stores..."I won't buy anything!" But inevitably I will see something and my already-weak resolve will weaken further.

So it was a couple months ago. I saw a lovely eggplant purple ponte...something I imagined I had been looking for and wanting for so long...something I could sew my Holy Grail dress* up in while awaiting the sewjo to sew it up in a nice woven...so I got a couple yards. And while I was at it, I added some dark gray ponte to the basket as well. *A lined wool sheath dress like Butterick 5602 or for now Simplicity 2468.

Thanksgiving morning 2019 I decided to sew up the gray in McCall's 6886. It went together quickly. I sewed a 10 grading to a 12 at the waist and a 14 at the hips. No FBA since there are no darts and I couldn't be bothered. I was also too impatient to wait to head to the store for darker thread. I sewed with the darkest gray I had and wound up with visible "top stitching." Actually this gray is very matte and boring and the stitching adds some interest.

Well, I don't really like it. I like the pattern well enough. I will probably make it again. But I don't like the fabric. It feels like plastic. I feel like I'm wearing a wet suit. I might wear it to work or to make a presentation but I'm not wearing it when I want to be comfortable.